New Delhi: After initiating a pilot project on decongestion in Karol Bagh, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation now plans to expand the scheme to other areas to promote use of public transport and make market areas more pedestrian-friendly. A senior official of the NDMC said, the expansion of the project will happen after polls and basic groundwork is being done at present. "After seeing the response at Karol Bagh, we are now planning to do similar project in Kirti Nagar and Kamla Nagar market areas. World over, from London to Shanghai, pedestrianisation of market areas have enhanced shoppers' experience, and we also want people of Delhi to feel that comfort," NDMC Commissioner Varsha Joshi told PTI.

Seeking to promote use of public transport and make commercial areas pedestrian-friendly, the north corporation has hiked parking fees for using Karol Bagh street. Prior to that a stretch of Ajmal Khan Road in the area was pedestrianised on Wednesday. Senior NDMC officials on Saturday said, the approval for the project and on parking fee hike was taken just before the elections dates were announced. Ajmal Khan Road for decades has been clogged with traffic and haphazard parking inconveniencing visitors. "This project had been first conceptualised in 2010 but could not take off for some reasons. So, we picked up this zone as soon I took charge at NDMC, and engaged with market associations and created off-street parking spaces by utilizing old, defunct municipal spaces," Joshi said. On Wednesday, visitors were taken by surprise when they found a stretch of the nearly one-km road decongested, and pavements lined with benches and the street decorated with flower pots.